Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-04-07
VALUABLE HINTS.

Special Notes for Farmers, Original and Sc
lected.
Remember that the manure question is
the most important one connected with
agriculture or horticulture.
Study what your soil and the crops you
grow need, and then, as best you can, feed
so as to make special manures to meet the
demand.
Thorough acquaintance with processes
of plant growth is necessary for judlclous
manuring. Apply fertilizers within reach
of plant rootlets, be it their nature to run
near the surface or down deep into the
ground.
He who gives little to the soil can get
but little from it; he who draws much
from should give much to It.
The soil cannot produce or build up
plants, unless it contains the ingredients
of which such plants are composed.
Soda, one of the alkalies contained in
the ashes of plants, is very much the same
as potash in its agricultural character and
uses.
In one ton, 2240 pounds, of common
salt, there are 833 pounds of soda and
1914 pounds of chlorine.
In one ton of gypsum there are 1917
pounds of sulphuric acid.
The use of common salt as a manure
has long been recommended. In some
places it has been highly esteemed, and Is
still extensively and proftably applied to
the land. Il has, like many other sub
stances, however, suffered in general estl-
nation from the unqualified terms In
which its merits have been occasionally
extolled.
For all agricultural purposes it may
be considered that carbonate of ammonia
and soda ash are equal, pound for pound,
and that potash may be taken at one-half
more.
Tt is beyond dispute that on certain
soils gypsum causes largely increased
growth of grass and clover, but expert
ment alone appears capable of determin-
ing on what soil it is likely to be benef-
cial.
With fine ground raw phosphates as
the basis of operations, we can now OBJ
tain com plete manures for every culture,
made according to any formula, and con-
tanning in readily available and ass1m-
liable form all the ingredients called for.
Since manures are the nourishing ma
terial of plants, and, other things being
equal, the higher profits of the field de-
pend only and alone on the greater easily
extracted quantity of the same found in
the soil therefore the more accurate
knowledge of this substance, its prepare
ton, proportional use, and how it may be
procured on farm in sufficient quantity
and with the least cost, is of the greatest
Importance to the husbandmaD-
There is no one subject in agriculture
which demands at the present day, more
care, continued and widely extended ex-
periments, than the practice of manur
ing.
The lining of the land is the harbinger
of health as well as of abundance 1t
salubrifes no less than 1t enriches- The
lime arrests the noxious effluvia which
tends to rise more or less from every soil
at certain seasons of the year, decompos-
es them, or causes their elements to as
sumo new forms of chemical combination,
in which they no longer exert the same
injurious influence upon animal life.
When common Salts mixed with quick
lime in compost heaps it is deprived by
the lime of portion of its chlorine, and
is partially converted into caustic soda.
The action of soda in this state is similar
to that of caustic potash. Net only does
it readily supply soda to the growing
plant, TO which soda is necessary; but it
also acts upon certain other substances
which the plants require SO as to render
them soluble, and to facilitate their en-
trance into the roots o. plants.
The object of farming is that of all
kinds of business, viz: by means of la
Dor and money, judiciously employed, to
produce rain, or to acquire money-in
other words. for one to SO employ his
labor and capital as by the management
of his affairs to secure the highest re-
turn.
Monopolies must be destroyed; class
legislation must be repealed; no more of
our public lands and no more of the pub
lie money must be given away; we must
have more equitable system of taxa
ton; the adulteration of food products
must cease, and the producer must be
recognized as the most important per-
sonage III society.
The farmer holds In his the threads
of his own prosperity and the elements
to his own success; he possesses the COM
pass by means of which his bark can be
steered into port with flying colors; and
this compass is his intimate acquain-
lance with the soil he tills.
A son cannot be cultivated under
standingly until it has been subjected
to such examination as will tell US, as
nearly as any examination can tell it.
what is necessary to render it fertile.
Without manure no good farming is
possible.
The man who cannot learn from his
neighbours mistake can teach his neigh
Dor by his own.
Breeding Roadsters.
A contributor To WalIaoa,S MONTHLY in